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Allen and Greenough's NEW LATIN GRAMMAR
By J. H. Allen, J. B. Greenough, G. L. Kittredge, A. A. Howard, Benj. L. D'Ooge Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 2014 Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-13104-7
CHAPTER 1
LATIN GRAMMAR
Latin Grammar is usually treated under three heads: 1. Words and Forms; 2. Syntax; 3. Prosody. Syntax treats of the function of words when joined together as parts of the sentence; Prosody of their arrangement in metrical composition.
PART FIRST—WORDS AND FORMS
THE ALPHABET
1. The Latin Alphabet is the same as the English (which is in fact borrowed from it) except that it does not contain J, U, and W.
Note 1.—The Latin alphabet was borrowed in very early times from a Greek alphabet (though not from that most familiar to us) and did not at first contain the letters G and Y. It consisted of capital letters only, and the small letters with which we are familiar did not come into general use until the close of the eighth century of our era.
Note 2.—The Latin names of the consonants were as follows:—B,be (pronounced bay); C, ce (pronounced hay); D, de (day); F, ef;G, ge (gay);H, ha;K, ka;L, el;M, em;N, en;P, pe (pay);Q, qu (koo);R, er;S, es;T, te (tay);X, ix;Z, ITLζITL (the Greek name, pronounced dzayta). The sound of each vowel was used as its name.
a. The character C originally meant G, a value always retained in the abbreviations C. (for Gaius) and Cn. (for Gnaeus).
Note.—In early Latin C came also to be used for K, and K disappeared except before a in a few words, as Kal. (Kalendae), Karthago. Thus there was no distinction in writing between the sounds of g and k. Later this defect was remedied by forming (from C) the new character G. This took the alphabetic place formerly occupied by Z, which had gone out of use. In Cicero's time (see N. D. ii. 93), Y (originally a form of V) and Z were introduced from the ordinary Greek alphabet to represent sounds in words derived from the Greek, and they were put at the end of the Latin alphabet.
b. I and V were used both as vowels and as consonants (see § 5).
Note.—v originally denoted the vowel sound u(oo), and F stood for the sound of our consonant w. When F acquired the value of our f, v came to be used for the sound of w as well as for the vowel u.
In this book i is used for both vowel and consonant i, u for vowel u, and v for consonant u:—ius, vir, iuvenis.
Classification of Sounds
2. The simple Vowels are a, e, i, o, u, y.
The Diphthongs are ae, au, ei, eu, oe, ui, and, in early Latin, ai, oi, ou. In the diphthongs both vowel sounds are heard, one following the other in the same syllable.
3. Consonants are either voiced (sonant) or voiceless (surd). Voiced consonants are pronounced with the same vocal murmur that is heard in vowels; voiceless consonants lack this murmur.
1. The voiced consonants are b, d, g, l, r, m, n, z, consonant i, v.
2. The voiceless consonants are p, t, c (k, q), f, h, s, x.
4. Consonants are further classified as in the following table:
1. Mutes are pronounced by blocking entirely, for an instant, the passage of the breath through the mouth, and then allowing it to escape with an explosion (distinctly heard before a following vowel). Between the explosion and the vowel there may be a slight puff of breath (h), as in the Aspirates (ph, th, ch).
2. Labials are pronounced with the lips, or lips and teeth.
3. Dentals (sometimes called Linguals) are pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching or approaching the upper front teeth.
4. Palatals are pronounced with a part of the upper surface of the tongue touching or approaching the palate.
5. Fricatives (or Spirants) are consonants in which the breath passes continuously through the mouth with audible friction.
6. Nasals are like voiced mutes, except that the mouth remains closed and the breath passes through the nose.
5. The vowels i and u serve as consonants when pronounced rapidly before a vowel so as to stand in the same syllable. Consonant i has the sound of English consonant y; consonant u (v) that of English consonant w.
Consonant i and u (v) are sometimes called Semivowels.
Note 1.—The Latin alphabet did not distinguish between the vowel and consonant sounds of i and u, but used each letter (I and V) with a double value. In modern books i and u are often used for the vowel sounds, j and v for the consonant sounds; but in printing in capitals J and U are avoided:—IVLIVS (Iulius). The characters J and U are only slight modifications of the characters I and V. The ordinary English sounds of j and v did not exist in classical Latin, but consonant u perhaps approached English v in the pronunciation of some persons.
Note 2.—In the combinations qu, gu, and sometimes su, u seems to be the consonant (w). Thus, aqua, anguis, consuetus (compare English quart, anguish, suave). In these combinations, however, u is reckoned neither as a vowel nor as a consonant.
ORTHOGRAPHY
6. Latin spelling varied somewhat with the changes in the language and was never absolutely settled in all details.
Thus, we find lubet, vorto, as earlier, and libet, verto, as later forms. Other variations are optumus and optimus, gerundus and gerendus.
The spelling of the first century of our era, known chiefly from inscriptions, is tolerably uniform, and is commonly used in modern editions of the classics.
a. After v (consonant u), o was anciently used instead of u (voltus, servos), and this spelling was not entirely given up until the middle of the first century of our era.
b. The older quo became cu in the Augustan period; in the second century of our era the spelling quu established itself in some words:—
cum, older quom; equos, ecus, later equus; sequontur, secuntur, later sequuntur; similarly exstinguont, exstingunt, later exstinguunt.
Note.—In most modern editions the spelling quu is adopted, except in cum.
c. Between consonant i and a preceding a, e, o, or u, an i was developed as a transient sound, thus producing a diphthong ai, ei, etc., before the consonant i. In such cases but one i was written: as, âio (for aiio), mâius (for mai-ius), pêius (for peiius).
d. Similarly in compounds of iacio but one i was written (as, con-icio, not con-iicio); but the usual pronunciation probably showed consonant i followed by vowel i(see § 11. e).
Note.—Some variations are due to later changes in Latin itself, and these are not now recognized in classical texts.
1. Unaccented ti and ci, when followed by a vowel, came to be pronounced alike; hence n?nti? was later spelled with a c and dici? with a t.
2. The sound of h was after a time lost and hence this letter was often omitted (as, arena for harena) or mistakenly written (as, humor for umor).
3. The diphthong ae early in the time of the Empire acquired the value of long open e (about like English e in there), and similarly oe after a time became a long close e (about like the English ey in they); and so both were often confused in spelling with e: as, coena or caena for the correct form c?na.
Syllables
7. Every Latin word has as many syllables as it has vowels or diphthongs:—
a-ci-e, mo-ne, fi-li-us, fe-ro-ci-ta-te.
a. In the division of words into syllables a single consonant (including consonant i and v) between two vowels is written and pronounced with the following vowel. Doubled consonants are separated:—
pa-ter, mi-li-tes, in-iu-ri-a, di-vi-do; mit-to, tol-lo.
Note 1.—Some extend the rule for single consonants to any consonant group (as sp, st, gn) that can begin a word. In this book, dix-it, saxum, etc. are preferred to di-xit, sa-xum; the pronunciation was probably d?c-sit, sac-sum.
Note 2.—A syllable ending with a vowel or diphthong is called open: all others are called close. Thus in pa-ter the first syllable is open, the second close.
b. In compounds the parts are separated:—
ab-est, ob-latus, dis-cerno, du-plex, di-sto.
Pronunciation
8. The so-called Roman Pronunciation of Latin aims to represent approximately the pronunciation of classical times.
Consonants are the same as in English, except that—
c and g are as in come, get, never as in city, gem,
s as in sea, lips, never as in ease.
Consonant i is like y in young; v (consonant u) like w in wing.
n in the combinations ns and nf probably indicates nasalization of the preceding vowel, which was also lengthened; and final m in an unaccented syllable probably had a similar nasalizing effect on the preceding vowel.
ph, th, ch, are properly like p, t, k, followed by h (which may, for convenience, be neglected); but ph probably became like (or nearly like) f soon after the classical period, and may be so pronounced to distinguish it from p.
z is as dz in adze.
bs is like ps; bt is like pt.
Note.—Latin is sometimes pronounced with the ordinary English sounds of the letters. The English pronunciation should be used in Koman names occurring in English (as, Julius Cæsar); and in familiar quotations, as, e pluribus unum; viva voce; vice versa; a fortiori; veni, vidi, vici, etc.
Quantity
9. The Quantity of a Vowel or a Syllable is the time occupied in pronouncing it. Two degrees of Quantity are recognized,—long and short.
a. In syllables, quantity is measured from the beginning of the vowel or diphthong to the end of the syllable.
10. Vowels are either long or short by nature, and are pronounced accordingly (§ 8).
a. A vowel before another vowel or h is short: as in via, nihil.
b. A diphthong is long: as in aedss, foedus. So, also, a vowel derived from a diphthong: as in excludo (from ex-claudo).
c. A vowel formed by contraction is long: as in nil (from nihil).
d. A vowel before ns, nf, gn, is long: as in constans, infero, magnus.
Note.—But the quantity of the vowel before gn is not certain in all cases.
e. A vowel before nd, nt, is regularly short: as in amandus, amant.
In this book all vowels known to be long are marked (a, e, etc.), and short vowels are left unmarked (a, e, etc.). Vowels marked with both signs at once (a, e, etc.) occur sometimes as long and sometimes as short.
Note.—The Romans sometimes marked vowel length by a stroke above the letter (called an apex), as, Á; and sometimes the vowel was doubled to indicate length. An I made higher than the other letters was occasionally used for ?. But none of these devices came into general use.
11. The Quantity of the Syllable is important for the position of the accent and in versification.
a. A syllable containing a long vowel or a diphthong is said to be long by nature: as, ma-ter, aes, au-la.
b. A syllable containing a short vowel followed by two consonants (except a mute before l or r) or by a double consonant (x, z) is said to be long by position, but the vowel is pronounced short: as, est, ter-ra, sax-um, Me-zen-tius.
Note.—When a consonant is doubled the pronunciation should show this distinctly. Thus in mit-to both t's should be pronounced as in out-talk (not merely a single t as in better).
c. A syllable containing a short vowel followed by a mute before l or r is properly short, but may be used as long in verse. Such a syllable is said to be common.
Note 1.—In syllables long by position, but having a short vowel, the length is partly due to the first of the consonants, which stands in the same syllable with the vowel. In syllables of "common" quantity (as the first syllable of patrem) the ordinary pronunciation was pa-trem, but in verse pat-rem was allowed so that the syllable could become long.
Note 2.—In final syllables ending with a consonant, and containing a short vowel, the quantity in verse is determined by the following word: if this begins with a vowel the final consonant is joined to it in pronunciation; if it begins with a consonant the syllable is long by position.
Note 3.—In rules for quantity h is not counted as a consonant, nor is the apparently consonantal u in qu, gu, su (see § 5. N. 2).
d. A syllable whose vowel is a, e, o, or u, followed by consonant i, is long whether the vowel itself is long or short: as, â-io, mâ-ior, pê-ius.
In such cases the length of the syllable is indicated in this book by a circumflex on the vowel.
Note.—The length of a syllable before consonant i is due to a transitional sound (vowel i) which forms a diphthong with the preceding vowel: as, â-io (for ai-io), mâ-ior (for mai-ior). See § 6. c.
e. In some compounds of iacio (as, in-icio) the consonant i of the simple verb was probably pronounced (though not written). Thus the first syllable was long by position: as, in-icio (for iniicio). See § 6. d.
In such cases the length of the syllable is not indicated in this book by a circumflex on the vowel.
f. When a syllable is long by position the quantity of the vowel is not always determinable. The vowel should be pronounced short unless it is known to be long.
Note.—The quantity of a vowel under these circumstances is said to be hidden. It is often determined with a greater or less degree of certainty by inscriptional evidence (see § 10. N.) or by other means. In this book, the quantity of all such vowels known to be long is marked.
Accent
12. Words of two syllables are accented on the first syllable: as, Ro'ma, fi'des, tan'go.
Words of more than two syllables are accented on the Penult if that is long (as, ami'cus, mone'tur, contin'git); otherwise on the Antepenult (as, do'minus, a'lacris, dissocia'bilis).
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Allen and Greenough's NEW LATIN GRAMMAR by J. H. Allen, J. B. Greenough, G. L. Kittredge, A. A. Howard, Benj. L. D'Ooge. Copyright © 2014 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
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